As you may have heard, Google released the latest version of Android last week. Like you, we’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Nougat (although some of us thought it would be named after a certain hazelnut cocoa spread). Being a developer, I’m fortunate in that I get early access to the latest updates. I’ve been using Nougat for a while and now that the final version is out, I have to say that it is every bit as sweet as its dessert-themed name suggests.

The first thing that I noticed was that my devices ran faster than they had previously on Marshmallow. In fact, Nougat makes a lot of things faster. Double tapping the app overview button allows me to quickly switch back and forth between two apps. I can whip off a speedy reply to a Slack message without leaving my current app thanks to the convenience of Direct Reply. The configurability of Quick Settings means that the settings that matter to me are only a single swipe away. Even rebooting my device feels faster!

One thing in particular is thankfully slower and that’s the drain on my battery. The improvements to Doze really seem to be paying off as I often arrive at the end of the day with plenty of battery to spare.

But, erm…this was supposed to be a post about our latest release for Android. Apparently I let myself get distracted by touting the awesomeness that is Nougat.

1Password 6.4 is Nougat ready!

We’ve been testing 1Password with the Nougat Preview on our devices for a while and, as with any new OS version, we’ve been working out the kinks. I am thrilled to say that we are now ready to share this goodness with you.

One of my favourite additions in 1Password 6.4 is our support of Nougat’s split-screen feature. It makes using 1Password even easier than before. No more flipping back and forth between apps in order to enter my credit card info. Instead, I can have 1Password open right next to my browser for easy access to all of my important details.

And if you’re among the majority that are still waiting for Nougat, don’t worry. 1Password 6.4 will continue to work on devices running Jelly Bean or later.

Plenty of sweetness to spare

1Password 6.4 is about so much more than just being compatible with Nougat. This update contains more than 20 new features, improvements, and fixes! In addition to multi-window support on Nougat, here are a few of the ones we’re most excited about…

Our new setup flow allows you to sign into your 1Password account from first launch.

You can now add multiple individual 1Password accounts.

We’ve cured the Strong Password Generator’s amnesia! It now remembers your preferences from the previous use.

Changes to your vaults are reflected immediately in the navigation drawer.

And of course, we managed to squash a few bugs along the way. For more details, feel free to browse the full list of changes in our release notes.

I hope you enjoy this update as much as we enjoyed building it for you. Please let us know what you think in the comments or in our discussion forums. If you would like to join our beta family and help us shape the future of 1Password, please join our 1Password for Android beta team.

For switching between local vaults, do you mean the ability to sync multiple vaults with Dropbox? If so, that’s not available in this release. It’s a more involved change than what it seems like on the surface so it hasn’t managed to bubble up on our priority list yet.

As for OPVault support, we added support for the OPVault file format earlier this year in version 6.3, so you should be all set there. ?

I sync my vaults with an app called OneSync (uses the Onedrive service). So I’m talking about switching between local vaults. It’s possible at the moment by clearing all the data for the app but it’s getting a bit tedious.

I forgot OPVault support was added because it’s not available for local vaults, so I can’t yet use it. Any updates on that?

It turns out I misunderstood how we were handing things and you’re right, OPVault support was added for Dropbox sync and is not supported for local vaults at this time. We need to make some changes to enable the new OPVault format to be synced with local storage.

I don’t have any update to share on when this might be possible but it’s great you shared this request with us. Please continue to keep in touch so we know what’s important to you ?

Have you completely abandoned your Windows customers? The windows version of 1Password is now VERY far behind the mac version, but more importantly, it appears as though you had us buy licenses and then once you had our money, stopped providing us with anything new like you had been doing before.

Some stats:
January 1, 2015-September 1, 2015: 1 password for windows had 13 updates, 6 of which I would call major updates based on the release notes

January 1, 2016-September 1, 2016: 1 password for windows had 2 updates, both of which were very minor

Going from 13 updates–some of which were major–to 2 very minor updates really feels horrible. It feels like you took my money, and then left me with a product that was missing a ton of features compared to the Mac program, and you stopped updating the product like you had been doing before.

I brought up some of these issues with your support staff back in 2015, and was told you were actively working on feature parity / getting the windows version closer to the mac version…..but that appears to have been a total lie as the updates have completely stopped, and the windows version has gotten no closer to the mac version.

I guess at this point, I can no longer recommend 1Password for windows to anyone. You appear to have completely let us go, and focused all your attention on 1Password for teams / 1 password for family / etc……products that I will never use as I don’t want my data in the cloud. I just wish I would have known you guys didn’t care about windows users / planned on abandoning us…..before I wasted my money on dead software that wouldn’t be updated anymore. I will be sure and let me friends know not to consider 1Password if they run Windows.

January 1, 2016-September 1, 2016: 1 password for MAC had 9 updates, including 8 MAJOR updates.

8 vs 0 major updates in 2016 (Mac VS Windows)……I think anyone looking at that should instantly be able to tell that 1Password doesn’t care about Windows users anymore. And I would hope the rest of you don’t make the same mistake I did when I assumed 1Password would keep updating their windows software like they do for the make software.

Don’t buy a 1Password license if you are a Windows users!!!! Unless you don’t care about ever seeing an update.

First of all, I am sorry your are feeling abandoned. It was never our intention, I apologise for that. We love all our customers equally and I am not lying when I say that your feedback is one of the most crucial things to us. We appreciate it. Secondly, let me try to explain the situation with 1Password for Windows.

1Password 4 for Windows served all of us well, but with the introduction of 1Password Accounts its time has come. 1Password 4 handles the data in a way, which is not suitable for 1Password Accounts, so we decided to build a brand new program and implement all of the features over time before we can consider replacing 1Password 4. There were announcements about this in our blog:

Our developers are working really hard on making 1Password for Windows great and it shows. There has been an incredible progress over the last two months: 11 updates in July and 3 updates in August, with version 1.0 coming soon:

Once again, let me thank you for being a 1Password customer. 1Password customers, including you, are the reason why all of us here, from Dave and Roustem to the most recent hire, are able to do a job we love every day. Actually, my very name among AgileBits team members symbolises the fact that Windows customers are not forgotten. I joined AgileBits just a couple of months ago and there is a lot of Windows-related tasks on my plate, believe me. ? We can’t wait to show you what we have up our sleeves!

I hope this clarifies this situation better, as we don’t want to keep you in the dark about it. If you have more questions about 1Password for Windows or any other, please, feel free to ask them. They are important. Our conversations and communication are important, so let keep them going.

Thanks for reaching out and giving me another chance to discuss this important topic with you. Greg brought up some great points in his reply to you already but I’d like to add two more.

First, we are building a brand new version of 1Password for Windows from the ground up so we can use all the latest and greatest technologies from Microsoft. Version 4 of 1Password for Windows was built upon Delphi which was really awesome but that technology is starting to get long in the tooth. The newer frameworks we’re using in version 6 enable us to enjoy goodies like HiDPI support, unicode, support for screenreaders, and generally make a lot of things easier to implement.

Second, as Greg mentioned, 1Password 6 on Windows is currently only supporting our new 1Password subscription services. This is a temporary logistical issue as are simply trying to keep the version 6 feature set as small as possible. In time we will add support for standalone licenses and Dropbox syncing.

The future of 1Password for Windows is a bright one. We’ve been expanding the Windows team for a while now and will continue to do so. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel but we do indeed have a ways left to go. We’ll get there.

Thanks again for sharing your passion for Windows with us. It’s users like you who care deeply about Windows that keep us moving forward. ❤️

I honestly think you were trying to be helpful, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. You say
“Our developers are working really hard on making 1Password for Windows great and it shows. There has been an incredible progress over the last two months: 11 updates in July and 3 updates in August, with version 1.0 coming soon”

I took a look at the beta version, installed it, and played around…….and you guys took a working app, and made it into something that I can’t event use with my existing 1Password database. There is no point in talking about it, as it is no more relevant to an existing agilekeychain/opvault windows users as a Unix / Mac / Toaster / Vacuum cleaner app would be. It is NOT COMPATIBLE.

I spent hours converting from LastPass to 1password, and then converting again from agilekeychain (the default in 1Password windows at the time) to opvault. I did this because you guys said you were committed to Windows, and were actively updating the app.

I don’t care if you had 11 updates, or 1,000 updates, or 1,000,000 updates to the beta version……as what you have created totally leaves me out in the cold. It is an app with no use for me, or for any of the customers you guys picked up over the last 10 years who use your agilekeychain/opvault formats. It is 100% NOT COMPATIBLE, so I don’t know why you are signing its praises to me. Maybe just trying to sucker me out of more money by getting me locked into a monthly subscription after I paid for the standalone app licenses (for Windows, Mac, and iOS).

Not to mention that I was talking about released software and not unreleased buggy beta software. The stats I provided were all for release versions, not beta versions. I never install beta stuff as it is too buggy / unreliable for daily use…..especially for a password manager that my life depends on.

I think the way you guys have approached this is a HORRIBLE way of doing business. Take money, stop updating the app, release new version that isn’t compatible anymore, and try to get people to pay a new monthly fee by not releasing any more updates.

Well I REFUSE to do that!!!!!!!! I don’t care if you don’t update the app anymore, or only release versions that are NOT COMPATIBLE with my database. You wont be able to sucker any more money out of me. I will eventually jump ship and move to KeePass, or back to LastPass, or any of your other competitors. I would rather move to one of your competitors than be held hostage when your new version no longer works with my database.

The whole reason I switched from LastPass to 1Password was to get my data out of the cloud, and not be dependent on a company that might change their strategy going forward. Now you guys have done the same thing as LastPass, and are clearly focusing on your monthly users FIRST, and abandoning you long term loyal customers. If we were important, why not start with us, instead of chasing new monthly customers???? Answer me that! I am guessing it is because you already got us to pay and fund the development of your new monthly services, and don’t care about us anymore. If that wasn’t the case, you would have either kept updating the existing windows app, or made sure the new app worked for your old customers FIRST.

You say one thing (not abandoning us), and then do another (end updates, and release a new version that is not compatible)

While you may be working on a big update (that isn’t compatible with ANY existing 1Password 4 databases), when you did big updates for Mac / Android / iOS, you didn’t end all updates like you have done on Windows for the last 9+ months.

After 1Password for teams / families came out, none of those other platforms saw a dead period like you have done for windows. Windows users got a raw deal, and I don’t understand why you just can’t admit that. The stats I provided VERY clearly indicate that your team just started ignoring windows, and hasn’t released any significant updates since.

For any of the customers you guys picked up over the last 10 years who use your agilekeychain / opvault formats, the new beta version is 100% NOT COMPATIBLE. I am glad you are doing something for windows, but it is clear from your development priorities that chasing new monthly subscription business is your highest priority. Making the software compatible with your existing user base is an afterthought, and who knows when it will be done.

For me, that is the definition of abandoning us. Taking our license money, and putting it into development of products and subscription services that we can’t even use with our existing databases…..what am I missing?

I just want you to be honest. You say one thing (not abandoning us), and then do another (end updates, and release a new version that is not compatible) If you plan on focusing on subscription services, I would rather pull the rip cord now, and move to another company. Things change, and priorities shift……I get that, and it is no big deal. I just don’t like being jerked around / led to believe something that isn’t true. If we aren’t a priority (which is very clearly indicated by the actions of your company), just tell me and I will move on. No big deal.

You’re right, Greg was indeed talking about our beta of 1Password 6 on Windows and indeed at the moment it only supports our hosted services.

You bring up a great point that on the surface it appears as if we are abandoning standalone license holders on Windows. It’s not true but I can totally see why you would see our actions that way. Please allow me to share with you another perspective ?

First it’s important to discuss 1Password 6 and what it represents. Since 1Password was first released in 2011 for Windows it has been written 100% in Delphi, a very capable but older programming language. As time moved on, Microsoft released newer frameworks that provided a lot of great new features that we wanted to bring to our Windows users. Things like HiDPI, unicode, and screenreader support.

To use these new frameworks we needed to rewrite 1Password from the ground up. This rewrite represents a huge undertaking but it’s one that we think is well worth the effort for our Windows users as the benefits are huge.

Now the thing is, it took years to develop all the features and so we are well aware that it will take a significant amount of time to make version 6 match all the features available in version 4.

We therefore decided to focus on 1Password accounts for the first phase. The thought was users of our hosted service weren’t able to use 1Password 4 on Windows at all with their accounts (they could only use the web app) and so it made sense to start there. Adding full support for licenses and all the related features for standalone licensed holders was a large undertaking all on its own so we made the decision to keep that for phase two.

I’ll be the first to admit that things are taking a long time and I would love them to go faster, but we are absolutely not abandoning our Windows users. Not a week goes by where I’m not part of several conversations about Windows – everything from hiring to planning to design to development. Our Windows team is working hard and making a lot of progress, but there’s a lot on their plates as well. They’re working their way through it and they will be successful in time.

As for our plans for licensed users, it is a very simple one. Many people love our new subscriptions but several others are with you and passionately want to keep their licenses and sync things without relying on cloud services. It’s a very passionate (bordering on religious) debate and I’m happy to side step the entire argument and simply provide both. As long as you and others love licenses enough to buy them, we’ll happily keep selling them ?

It really is as simple as that – Roustem and I started 1Password 10 years ago now and the only reason we’ve managed to survive this long is because we listen to our customers and do whatever we can to make them happy. You and many others have made it clear that purchasing licenses makes you happy so we’d be fools not to allow you to. ?

Lastly, you brought up a great point about 1Password 4 and the fact that there have been no updates there. The reason for this really just boils down to focus. We know that 1Password 6 is a monumental effort and we know that it will be the basis for all Windows users in the future, so it makes sense to have the entire Windows team focus their effort and energy on the future version. If there are critical fixes needed for version 4 we will switch gears and release an update but the hope is to keep the team focused on the future and moving forward.

I hope this helps shed light on where we’re coming from. I’m sorry we haven’t been able to give you updates faster but I can say without a doubt that they are coming and I hope you’ll give us time to deliver on that promise. We wouldn’t even have a Windows version at all without passionate users like you. Thank you for making it possible for us to develop 1Password 6 ❤️

Dave….Thanks for trying to clear things up, but every time I get another data point, it looks worse and worse. Alex Hoffman, one of your support team members, just posted on the forum that you guys hadn’t even decided if you would support existing sync methods going forward. So even if at some point you do fully support existing databases, I still may not be able to sync my vaults with my mobile devices as I have been doing in the current windows version. That is something you didn’t mention in any of your comments, and something VERY important for those of us who are with 1Password to keep our data out of the cloud. Again…..please just be honest with us. Will the new version of 1Password you are working on work with existing databases / sync methods…..or not? If not, show me the door and I will head to one of your competitors

Thanks for getting back to me. Open two-way honest communication is always important, from everything from marriage to apps. In fact, I’d argue that it’s most important with password managers ?

I read the thread from Alex that you mentioned and I can see where you’re coming from. If I was in your shoes I would be nervous as well and I would assume the worse when reading anything. When I read Alex’s reply in that light, I could easily assume the same thing you did. Let me try to unpack it a little bit here to clear things up.

First and foremost, Alex and I are saying the same thing: we are rolling out the new version of 1Password in phases. The first phase is focused on our new hosted service for all the reasons I summarized earlier. The second phase will be to add more support for the standalone license holders.

That’s the general plan but you’ll see that I was purposely vague and said “more support” instead of enumerating the exact features. This is because even after the first phase is done (and believe me, there is a monumental amount of effort required for phase 1), there is still a ton of work remaining to add the remaining features from the standalone version. This is expected as it took almost half a decade to write them all in the first place so it’s going to require a lot of effort to migrate them all over. Once phase 1 is done we’ll sit down and decide exactly what should be in phase 2 and what should be in phase 3. I have a general idea in my head what will be where, but things change with time and we’ll see where we end up.

Now the reason Alex was more optimistic about Dropbox syncing than he was with WLAN Sync is simply because the native Dropbox client handles a lot of the work for us automatically. There’s still a lot to be done like writing the files in the right format and dealing with conflicts, but the networking layer is handled for us and that makes both Alex and I more optimistic. Therefore it is most likely that Dropbox syncing will be in phase 2. WLAN Sync, on the other hand, needs us to handle the entire process so it’s going to be further to the finish line. This is why Alex instinctively thought of this as being in phase 3 but it’s too early to tell. My strong personal preference is to roll them out together and that’s what I’ll be pushing for, but things may change once the rubber hits the road.

I’m trying my best to share with you as much as I can to make it clear that we care about our licensed Windows users while at the same time keeping in mind that things change fast in the software industry so I can’t make specific promises. It’s bitten my many times in the past, especially when giving out dates, so I’m being relatively tight lipped as a result. I remember one time I promised we’d add WebDAV syncing with MobileMe, and soon thereafter Steve Jobs was standing on stage saying that MobileMe was completely dead. Needless to say that changed things ?

Anyway, all that is to say that I’m not going to share specific details with anyone (and indeed I’ve asked Alex to stop sharing internal release dates as well) but the general plan is a phased roll out into the new technology and licensed users are a part of that plan.

I hope that helps clear things up. And thank you very much for your passion and thinking of us. I know you’re only upset because you care deeply about 1Password and don’t want us to take it away from you. We won’t abandon you. ❤️

Dave…..Thanks for the long and detailed replies. Your willingness to openly discuss complaints is great, and you do a wonderful job at calming down angry people like myself. I know I have been a bit aggressive / angry / agitated / annoyed / mad / pissed / upset……and I am sure some of the posts were hard to read and patiently reply to. You did a good job of handling an angry customer / representing your business, even if I am not happy with the answers you provided.

I understand that you will eventually get to us. It is just frustrating to have invested in a product and then be the last of all the platforms (mac / ios / android / etc.), and the last of all user types (1pass teams / 1 pass family / icloud / dropbox / wifi sync), to be taken care of. Really makes me feel like a member of the untouchable class.

1Pass is very different now than it was even a year ago, and the path you have chosen is going to have the biggest NEGATIVE impact on windows WiFi sync users until you actually release something that functions for us.

I wish you would have chosen to start with the long term customers, or chosen to not release something until it would work for all customers……but you have made your decision and further complaining isn’t going to be productive at this point.

Hopefully when you eventually get around to releasing something we can use, you will be able to find a way to make it up to us for patiently waiting / sticking by you while you released stuff for everyone else.

And while I know how tough estimating releases can be, and agree that making promises is a bad idea…….at least knowing if it is going to be approx 1 month, 1 year, or 10 years would help. I am willing to wait a short time based on your responses, but if you will be 10 years, I don’t want to wait. I know that with my software, I can usually tell if something is going to take longer than a day / week / month / year………even if I don’t know exactly how long. Your customers have no idea how much work there is to do / what priority it is for you / how many people are working on it / etc……all of which you guys should know. Some good communication about what to expect goes a long way in terms of not having people get angry. If you tell us it will take 10 years, and it takes 10 years, I can live with that. But if you tell us nothing, and the days / weeks / months / years keep going by……by the time we get to 10 years, I will be furious. Even just saying something like “we anticipate it taking 5-10 years, but can’t commit to anything just yet” would be better than nothing. Just different ways of treating people, and not being open with us about what to expect is a sure way to have more angry customers.

You’re very welcome, Andrew. I know your anger is coming from your love of 1Password and when I keep that in mind it becomes the fuel source for my compassion and my replies follow suit. If you didn’t care you’d simply leave and that would be a tragedy for everyone involved. When you think about things from that angle, it helps get to the root of the issue and move forward. ?

As for estimating releases and giving a general overview of our plans, that is a very slippery slope. Once I say one number, questions start and it’s “not that big of a deal” to take an additional step and add some more details. Then again. And again.

Before you know it you’re stuck behind the eight ball because things have changed and you need to catch up to where the puck is, but you’re too busy skating to where you thought it might be months ago. Sorry for the hockey analogy, but you are talking to a Canadian after all ? ?

I know this all too well as I’ve tried many variations on showing customers our plans and setting expectations over the last 10 years. It took a long time to learn that Apple has the best approach and to simply follow their lead.

Anyway, I’m sorry I can’t give you more details and I’m sorry your features are the ones planned for our later phases. We’ll get there and I look forward to the day I can publish the announcement post here.

Hi Dave,
Any word on when the “Nougat-y goodness” will extend to adding fields to a login (or any other item for that matter)? As it stands I have to remember to fix things when I am back at my desktop.
Many sites now use multiple web addresses for various parts of their login/browsing experience and so I would consider this a rather important feature (possibly slightly more important than my desire for multiple vaults, but I think you’ve addressed that already!).

Thanks for the great question. You’re right, being able to customize your logins is a great feature and one that we definitely need. We’re actually working our way there but in a rather indirect way as there are several technical issues we need to take care of first to make it possible.

So while I can’t promise when this will be available, I can say it’s on our roadmap ?

Thanks for asking! We added support for OPVault in version 6.3 for data stored in Dropbox. If you’re storing your vaults locally and syncing them in some other way (Synology, etc) then I fear I don’t have any news to share with you just yet.

As for switching between local vaults I’m pretty sure this isn’t available yet as it would require adding multiple local vaults, which last time I checked wasn’t possible. Switching between vaults is currently only available in the hosted version of 1Password (basically the syncing a much easier so we’re able to avoid a lot of technical challenges). I’ll ask my team to be sure nothing changed since I last checked on this. I switched from Android back to iOS when Apple released the new iPhone 7 so my data might be a little stale ?